Greetings from Calgary

Hey, I've been following the blog for about a year, but thought I would finally register for the forum.
I will admit I'm not 100% primal, as my inherent skepticism keeps me from going full throttle, but I agree with enough of the lifestyle to keep reading, and even my partial adoption has resulted in some respectable results.

Still skeptical or not fully embraced:
- eat lots of meat
- saturated fat is good for you (although I acknowledge the flaws in most studies which indicate it's bad for you)
- skip the legumes

That said, following the first part, and honestly being terrible at sticking to it, I've lost about 18 lbs of a planned
37 lbs, going from an 'overweight' bmi to a normal weight one, so the results are evident. Even if I'm unsure how 'bad' grains esp wheat are for you, you can't argue with the fact that cattle are fattened with grains vs other types of food. Grains and legumes are still in my diet, but are more sides rather than the base of meals. The documentaries Food Inc and King Corn, combined with this blog all simultaneously made me rethink how I ate, or perhaps more accurately, made me START to think about how I ate.

Anyway, always keeping an open mind and wanting to absorb more and more.
Now to figure out how to get my vegan gf to get a bit more primal

Hi Chris Welcome to the forums, I am from Cochrane, and have been primal for a year, and just joined as well. If you are concerned about how cattle are raised, and fed check this out. Medicine River Luings I bought a 1/4 cow from them last year, and a 1/2 hog this year. All grass fed on naturally fertilized land, hormone free etc, and when you buy in quantity it works out to be about the same price as store bought beef, but is much more lean. They sell out pretty far before the deliveries which are usually in Oct, but it is great meat!!

Hi Chris Welcome to the forums, I am from Cochrane, and have been primal for a year, and just joined as well. If you are concerned about how cattle are raised, and fed check this out. Medicine River Luings I bought a 1/4 cow from them last year, and a 1/2 hog this year. All grass fed on naturally fertilized land, hormone free etc, and when you buy in quantity it works out to be about the same price as store bought beef, but is much more lean. They sell out pretty far before the deliveries which are usually in Oct, but it is great meat!!

Congrats on the 18 lbs of weight loss!!

Thanks! Thanks for the link, I've been debating getting an eighth of a cow (would probably last me more than a year), so that I can finally put my empty deep freeze to use, I've been checking out TK Ranch. I think that's been the biggest change in my diet, is the quality of what I eat. I'd say my meat consumption is actually less than it used to be, but that's because I'm not eating poor quality fast food meat anymore, instead I'd rather only have a few meals heavy on meat a week, but make sure they're extremely high quality. That and now I probably eat 1/10 of the grains I used to, replacing them with vegetables. This site and those documentaries made me ponder how I, and many others, are all about 'you get what you pay for' to justify paying more for quality clothing, electronics, and other consumer products, but then we just try to go cheap for food we put inside our bodies, it's crazy when you think about it. Now I'm willing to follow 'you get what you pay for' for food.

Another thing that prompted my change is in the fall of 2010 I spent about $500 on clothes, which I intended to wear in the spring and summer of 2011. Well 4 or 5 months later, when I finally went to wear them, they didn't fit, so I had to do another mini shopping spree so I'd have something to wear. That was the beginnings of realizing something had to be done, I was 182 lbs and 5'8, and it wasn't muscle weight. Then in January 2012 I saw Food Inc, King Corn, and probably a month later I stumbled upon this blog. Once I started to cut out the crap in my diet and lost 10-12 lbs, suddenly one by one I was able to start pulling the tags off those now 2 yr old purchases and wear them, as well as some stuff I used to wear a decade ago which now also fit. I always refused to get rid of clothing which was too small, as to me that was giving up and deciding I'd always be overweight. I'm glad I didn't.

When I stared primal eating within about 3-4 months I had to start getting rid of clothes that were now too big...It is a great motivating feeling to see something that was too small now fits perfect, and clothes that used to fit really nice are now way too big!!! I am looking into getting an aero garden so that I can grow fresh vegetables year round in my house.

If you want to see how you respond to saturated fats you should try cooking with coconut oil. It is a great cooking oil, and even though it is saturated there are even some non primal sources that state the health benefits of cooking with coconut oil, plus it has many other uses like a moisturizer, or mixed with salt, baking soda, and peppermint oil toothpaste.

When I stared primal eating within about 3-4 months I had to start getting rid of clothes that were now too big...It is a great motivating feeling to see something that was too small now fits perfect, and clothes that used to fit really nice are now way too big!!! I am looking into getting an aero garden so that I can grow fresh vegetables year round in my house.

If you want to see how you respond to saturated fats you should try cooking with coconut oil. It is a great cooking oil, and even though it is saturated there are even some non primal sources that state the health benefits of cooking with coconut oil, plus it has many other uses like a moisturizer, or mixed with salt, baking soda, and peppermint oil toothpaste.

The best way to make a decision on things like saturated fats is to research a bit, and then see how your system responds to it.

Thanks for reminding me actually, I do plan on working some coconut oil into my diet. That's another change, I've gone from using no-name canola oil for most of my cooking, plus occasionaly some grocery store extra virgin olive, to now using avocado for most of my medium heat cooking, and olive for as much low and no heat needs as possible. I actually have pretty low confidence in the purity of olive oil with all of the adulteration scams, so I think my next (and future) bottles will be California prize winners. Sure the cost could be $10-$20, maybe even $40 more a bottle, but over the months it lasts that's what, the cost of a few cappucinos or a beer a month? (yes I still drink beer, I'll never give up my craft brews). Once I get the coconut oil that will cover my higher heat cooking, and I'm sure I'll treat myself to it for other cooking as well.

MMM Beer. I still have a beer after hockey, and I am also brewing my own. I mostly drink wine now though (which I also make myself). There are so many things that coconut oil is good for. I just started to use it in a home made toothpaste, and that works so good I am going to try it in a home made deodorant recipe that I found. If you like your craft brews you should check out the home vintner for making it yourself. It is so good. My last batch was similar to innus and gunn, and now I am making an oaked winter spice ale...About a month away from being ready, but I am really looking forward to it, and as a plus you can put in all natural flavors instead of concentrate. The only limit is your imagination.

Greetings, fellow Calgarian. I just joined the forum too. I live in the Tuscany area in the Northwest. Last week I checked out the Wednesday farmer's market in Parkdale area and bought some delicious Top of the Mountain Beef, all grass fed and grass finished. Top of the Mountain Grass-Fed Beef | Flavourful, Healthful Grass-fed Beef Wow it is so filling to eat even just a little bit of their steak. Thinking of splitting a 1/4 beef with a friend.

I can relate to the clothing issues. Unfortunately before I went primal, I had given up on being smaller than size 14/16, and I gave away to Goodwill (second hand store) a bunch of size 12s and Mediums I no longer fit into. Oh well, most of them would have been too big for me now that I am size 10. I decided to go back to Goodwill to renew my wardrobe, knowing that people like me donate to them. I actually found some very good quality clothes there.